City Of Belpre Goes Green With Christmas Lights

Thousands of lights create beautiful holiday displays in Belpre, but all those light bulbs can create a pretty heavy electric bill for the city.

That's why this year the city of Belpre is beginning the process of changing all the Christmas lights to LED.

Mayor Mike Lorentz says the energy efficient lights will save the city a lot of money in the long run. He says LED lights last a lot longer than standard lights.

"The lights themselves are six times more expensive than the standard lights but they're still looking at the cost of electricity and the longevity of the lights is the reason for going that way."

It's a big job for the city, and Mayor Lorentz says it will take a few years before every light is changed.

"It's gonna take two or three years to change everything over because the ones that they create new will be LED. The ones they repair will be LED or if one gets damaged they'll change it to LED, but to do 120 different displays all at once will be a huge huge cost

It's not just Christmas decorations, though. The whole city is going green with LED lights.

"The street lights and all that are now LED. We've gone to the energy saving lights in all the city buildings. For instance, your stop lights cost about 90 dollars a month to operate and that's dropped to about 32 dollars per light."

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